Today I’d like to have a little heart to heart with you the reader.
How have you really been doing? Feeling a bit of this COVID fatigue? How is your heart doing? What about your mental health? How are you feeling physically? Maybe you’re tired and weary from the stressors of this life? Maybe you’re doing great in spite everything going on in the world? Whatever you’re feeling, hear me out today…
I was having a conversation this week with my sister and another good friend which got me thinking. You know, life on this earth will never be perfect and many of the things that we allow ourselves to get anxious and fret about are out of our control. We cause ourselves more stress and heartache when we don’t learn to let go and let God do His thing in our lives. Trust me I’m speaking from experience.
Life is made up of many victories and disappointments, happiness and sadness, broken dreams and dreams fulfilled and the list goes on. There will be very difficult seasons to walk through and seasons of breakthrough and happiness. However, sometimes moments of joy may have some grief or loss intertwined with them and vice versa. Sometimes we’ll make mistakes and hurt the ones we love.
Our perspective and response towards our circumstances is what really makes the difference.
In this season I’m learning that it’s okay to lean into the various emotions that I may be feeling at a given time whether sadness, joy, hope, grief, gratitude, disappointment, weariness and even fear. However, rather than staying in my negative emotions, I walk through them with the Word (i.e. the truth), God and sometimes a friend. I take time to journal and analyse my thought processes. This allows me to differentiate between any toxic thoughts I may be accepting vs. a healthy human reaction towards something.
Navigating the messiness of life involves daily letting go of what we have no control over, doing the best with what we can control and giving thanks in all of it.
“Don’t try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go. God opens millions of flowers every day without forcing their buds.”
Rajneesh
Rather than thinking, “This job is so toxic, stressful and exhausting, I’m so over everyone and everything connected to it,” you could consider a different perspective. For example, “I’m grateful for this job and all that I’m learning from it in this season including resilience. I hope to make a positive difference where I can until God opens another door of opportunity for me.”
We can also try to find the beauty in painful situations, even though easier said than done. And even if you can’t find anything beautiful about it, you can lean into those things, people or places that help you to find peace, joy and beauty in the midst of the chaos.
As I was sharing with my friend, I believe this pandemic has placed a lot of fear in many people’s heart. Many of us are struggling with mental health issues that we never had before and our faith is wavering. It’s okay to admit these things but it’s not okay to ignore them, lie to ourselves or isolate ourselves from loved ones.
Sister/brother today is the day I want to encourage you to take that step of faith and do what is best for yourself! Talk to God first, make that call to a friend, forgive that person, book that flight, read that book, make that counselling appointment, talk to your pastor, take that vacation, take a break from social media, try something new that brings you joy, scream at the top of your lungs, dance it off, get a pet, join a support group.
Whatever you need to do, to help you navigate this messy, imperfect and beautiful life, in a healthier way, DO IT TODAY.
Yours truly,
Star
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